Canadians browse and buy more online in 2012

Consumers in Canada view the most web pages of any developed nation measured by online research firm comScore Inc. All those views helped drive Canadian e-commerce spending to $22.3 billion in 2012, up 9.9% from $20.3 billion in 2011. (The spending inclues retail and travel purchases.) Canadians also bought online more frequently in 2012 than in 2011—105.3 million transactions versus 90.0 million in 2011—up 17.0%, comScore says.

ComScore says Internet users in Canada on average visited 3,731 web pages per month during the fourth quarter of 2012, putting it slightly ahead consumers in the United States, who visited an average of 3,709 pages per month in Q4. Canadians spent an average of 41.3 hours per month during Q4 on the web, second only to U.S. consumers, who spent 43.0 hours. ComScore says the worldwide average was 24.6 hours per month during Q4.

Visits by Canadians to retail sites during Q4 2012 increased 9.2% from the same period in 2011. Retail sites received an average of 23.8 million visits from Canadian consumers per month during the quarter, up from 21.8 million in Q4 2011. The retail sites that received the most visits from Canadians were those operated by Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc. worldwide sites, online classifieds web site Kijiji.ca, and sites operated by Best Buy Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Amazon is No. 1 in Internet Retailer’s Top 500 Guide, Apple is No. 3, Best Buy is No. 11 and Walmart.com is No. 4.